RE-PLACING FEAR

It's grab your bibles. Grab your bibles in turn to Psalm forty six.

If you don't have a Bible with you, just raise your hand. We're

passing those out right now. Also, if you didn't get a bulletin on

your way into the worship center, that's going to be helpful too, because

there's sermon notes on the back to track along with So just raise your hand

if you need a Bible or a bulletin and keep it up there because there

they'll they'll see you. They will see you if you just keep your hand

up, turn to Psalm forty six. And while you do that, UM,

I would take a moment to welcome and thank someone whom you already know.

All of you already know Captain Bowtie. So then why am I up

here introducing him if you are all already know him. I wanted to take

a moment to say this that, as Kara and I prepare to go on

our sabbatical this summer, I have interacted with quite a number of pastors who

have taken sabbaticals, and I don't think any of them. I don't think

any of them were able to enter that time of rest with the kind of

confidence that I have here at Crossway Bible and not just confident in those who

will come and preach God's word, as important as that meal is for us

every Sunday morning, It's not just confidence in those who are going to preach,

but it is also confidence in those who will. Pastor. I am

so confident in the pastoring team here at Crossway Bible Church, and Pastor Shamus

Drake is a part of that which you welcome him. Thankspre Oh, still

us to lean so far as as we said, we will be in Psalm

forty six. If you haven't already gotten there, um, go ahead and

turn there that we we're gonna talk a little bit today about what what what

it's like to respond faithfully in fear? Have you Have you ever been afraid

before? Do you ever? Yeah? Okay Um? The word of God.

Then I'll just encourage you is for you today. I'm gonna ask you

care would you come and read Psalm forty six for us? Psalm forty six,

Psalm forty six Versus one through eleven to the choir master of the Sons

of Kora. According to Alamath, a song, God is our refuge and

strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.

Though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of

the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at

its swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad. The city of

God, the holy habitation of the Most High God, is in the midst

of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her. When

the morning dawns. The nation's rage, the kingdom's totter. He utters his

voice, the earth melts. The Lord of Hosts is with us. The

God of Jacob is our fortress. Come behold the works of the Lord.

How he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes worst to cease to

the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.

He burns the chariots of fire. Be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the

earth. The Lord part of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob

is our fortress. This is God's word. Amen. So I'm assuming that

you've been afraid before. I certainly have. I have teenage drivers in my

house. That's not the only thing that brings about fear, but it is

certainly among the things that bring about fear for me. Now it's I remember,

it wasn't that long ago. It's a very very memorable experience for me.

I had pulled up my phone. I know this is not particularly healthy.

I'm not recommending it, but when you have a teenage driver and you

kind of send them out into the world and you follow them on find my

phone, which is like you know, track your kid, that's what that

means is follow the little blue thing as it goes places where wherever it's going

or whatever. And so I had my daughter, now the keys of the

car, and this I remember the first time she was driving, not just

around our neighborhood or just like to our places over here, but like across

this great city and or like over there on an interstate, and I remembered

following Again, this is not a good idea, but I remembered following the

dot. And if you've ever done this before, I can't be the only

one. If you've ever done this before, Like you're watching it and it

just pauses for a second, and you're like, she's still at that intersection,

She's still at that intersection. She's like, oh, okay, it's

good. She moved like you you it's that bad, right, and your

heart is so infested in this little blue dot moving from point to point to

point. And so I was like, this is you know, I can

trust the Lord. I can I can put this in my pocket. That's

good, That's what it was gonna look like. So I closed the phone,

put it down in my pocket. I took maybe about half an aisle's

worth of steps before I felt my breath getting short again and like my heart

rate increasing, Like I could feel what that felt like. And I'm like,

what, what is what is happening to me? What is going on?

And you know, this is the physiological experience of fear, and you've

felt it at some point. I'm sure I know you understand that some level

what that feels like. But that's the physiological experience of fear, where at

one level I'm saying like, no, I'm trusting the Lord. I can

put my phone in my pocket. But yet at the same time, the

fear is a whole lot bigger than my fortress. Right, The fear is

a whole It's the only thing that I can see. I'm not remembering who

I am. I'm not remembering who God is. I'm not remembering the fact

that he is for me, that he's my present help in trouble. That

when I'm walking, I take several steps and I find myself suddenly in the

Asian food section at Hib, and my heart is beating faster. I guess

I'm actually you know, I need him to be my present help now over

this particular fear, and I'll need it this afternoon, and next time you

see me at Hib, I'll need it then too, because I still struggle

against this fear, and not just this fear, but the reality that I

don't have as much control, and I cannot keep my kids, and I

can't keep my life and my things and my stuff safe like I wish that

I could, like I think I can. I don't have that much strength.

The reality, though, is that again and again and again, the

scriptures call me not to invest my hope and my capacity to keep bad things

from happening, but rather rather to invest my hope in the helper who is

ever present with me to help me in times of trouble. See the text

calls us here. The text calls me to to instead of put my fear

in the context and circumstances around me, to put it in Emmanuel my strength.

Emmanuel means it's God with us. We talk a lot about that at

Christmas time, like Jesus coming down, But this text here talks about Jesus

God being our very present help in trouble, very present, eager to help,

abundantly available when we need him. He's right there in our time of

trouble. If anybody had any trouble this week, anybody experiencing maybe they're gonna

have a little trouble later on today or later on as the week comes.

We need to learn what to do when that trouble comes. Because Emmanuel our

strength, cannot be moved. We as the people of God, need not

fear when trouble comes. We do not need to be moved to fear when

trouble comes. I'm gonna argue today and I want you to. I want

you to walk out of here convinced that God's power in this text and reveal

throughout scripture. But God's power proves that you can trust him, and his

love and his presence prove that you should. You can trust him, and

you should if you're taking notes, and you'd like to fill in blanks.

We've got some fill in the blanks for you. Point number one. As

you're following along, if you see in the text on in the Bible,

your text might be broken up into seat three, sort of like verse sections

one through three, four to seven, and then eight through eleven. We'll

be taking those in turn. First one. There, we'll see first text

is saying, we need not fear when the solid becomes unstable. We need

not fear when the solid becomes unstable. God's people, the Manual's own people

need not fear even if the created order itself is turned upside down, even

if the created order turns inside out. And most of us consider ground to

be a place of relative stability right generally speaking, the ground doesn't do a

whole lot of moving in our experience. For instance, when the structural engineers,

we're building out this space, we're trying to figure out what to do,

and the structural engineers said, you know what we should and can keep

that giant pole in the middle of this room. And they made that that

part of that judgment based on the idea that they really believe that the ground

beneath it was going to stay steady. Right, They would have made a

different call if they thought that the ground was going to be, you know,

doing the thing where it's moving. The ground is stable, we build

on solid ground. We believe that the ground is generally stable. But there

are times in our life, times in my life, and I'm sure in

yours, where it feels as though those things which were stable are completely flipped

on their head. And this is what he's talking about. He's not he's

not saying the last time that the mountains were thrown into the heart of the

sea. What he's saying is, even if, even though the mountains themselves

the highest thing that he can think of, right this is before airplanes,

where he's gonna be flying above in thirty thousand feet in the air, the

highest thing that he can think of gets traded spaces with the lowest thing that

he can think of. Again, they didn't have Jacques Cousteau and all of

that the heart of the sea, right as though those things were totally turned

on their head. Even if that happened, and my entire world turns on

its head, we need not fear, That's what he says. We therefore,

and why to the fact that what God is our refuge and our strength,

He's a very present help in trouble. See this, this text,

like so many, are trying to get our eyes off of the trouble,

get our attention away from the struggle, the thing that we're fearing, and

get them to point towards the God who is there with us in the midst

of it. And here even says God is our refuge and strength, a

very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. Right if this

God is our refuge, in our strength, and our refuge is a place

that you run to for comfort, Where do you run? Who do you

call? What app do you open up to take your mind off of things?

Right? What do you focus your attention on? What is practically speaking

your refuge? What this text tells us is that God is God is our

refuge, desires to be He's ever present, ever ready to be our help.

Why why can we not fear? Because the one who is unfailingly with

us? Because of who the one who is unfailingly with us is, He's

always with us, And we therefore will not fear even in the middle of

an act of God. Act of God. They're in air quotes like all

things are acts of God. Right, God takes care of the birds of

the heavens and the flowers of the fields. And that's Jesus's point in Matthew

six to that whole section there. You don't have to be anxious because your

heavenly father's looking out for these things. So how much more is he going

to look out for you? But you've probably wondered whether that was true.

In the middle of a storm, you probably wondered what that was true when

you heard thunder that the lightning must have hit like six inches from your ear

right, Just like the disciples were in Matthew eight. They were in the

storm in the midst of that the Sea of Galilee there, they're they're freaking

out because there's a great storm that has arisen, and Jesus, where's Jesus

in the midst of this great storm that has arisen? You sleep in the

boat and they wake him up, and they're like, first of all wondering

because kind of borderline in jelis, how are you? How are you asleep

in this Save us? Lord? We are perishing, We're gonna die.

And Jesus, I don't know what it was like to get woken up and

get all soggy like that and have to respond. But the the attitude with

which you hear Jesus responding in to these disciples here is of great importance.

It's extremely important. We sang a song just a little bit ago will come

to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide forgiveness spot with the precious

blood of Jesus Christ. The facial expression on the Son of God as he

calls to these people, and he speaks to his friends who are saying,

save us, we are perishing, We're gonna die. What does that look

like for you? When you're afraid? Do you think that God's got his

arms crossed and he's, like I said, don't fear? Or do you

do? You see? Then you can go back and look at Matthew eight,

Matthew eight and other places Matthew eight, Marked four and Luke eight.

Jesus does have a rebuke in that situation, but his rebuke is for the

wind and the waves on his people. He tells his people, so why

are you afraid, oh you of little faith? I see and read that.

It's like just a heart of deep compassion and empathy and one who understands

what it's like to be tempted with fear. He understands, and he draws

near to them. He's not angry at them. I don't know about you,

but I'm not quick to reach out for help if I think that the

helper is going to be difficult. Right If I call the helpline and they're

like, yeah, did you even read the manual? I am not going

to be motivated to stay on the line and at the end give them a

five star rating for their customer service. I am probably never going to call

those people again because they were not very helpful or very kind. So the

attitude with which you think your helper is going to help you is of incredible

importance. And what does this text say? Our helper is like, Look,

get your eyes to it. Right there, God is our refuge and

strength, a very present help in trouble, abundantly available. He is right

there, ready, eager to help you. He's not begrudging, he's not

saying again, are you serious? He doesn't say yes, But don't you

remember I've told you not to fear. No, He's abundantly present and available

to help you in times of trouble. Trouble will come. Your helper is

there, Your helper is near. Yes, he said over three hundred times

in the scripture, do not fear. But he did it from a heart

that wants you to experience his goodness, his fullness, his closeness, his

joy. Not fear the best that he has. Not only can he's help

again, if you've got, if you've got the NASB in the margin there

it says, he's abundantly available, abundantly available. He's your help, he's

your refuge, he's your strength, he's your fortress. But when the trouble

inevitably comes, doesn't it doesn't. The issue problem doesn't lie with with him.

It lies in my little faith and that tiny little muscle that I am.

So it's difficult for me to use it to reach out to him,

right, the little bitty faith. But on the other side, he's saying,

just just disflex it one more time. Just reach out, Just reach

out, you of little faith. I want to see that little faith grow.

Am I going to go to him to be my refuge and my strength?

Friends? What is our fear? Saying it communicates a lot about us

and about what we actually believe. Practically speaking, what is our fear saying

about us and where we find our strength, and where we find our help,

and where we find our hope. When we experience fear, just it

reveals what we value. It tells us that there's something going on in our

hearts, we want something, we don't want something to happen. It reveals

our values. So what are your fears saying you believe about God? What

are your fears saying? What are you in the midst of your fear saying

you believe about prayer? Because so many times we say, well, I

last time I was afraid, last in the situation happened, I prayed and

it didn't help. Because what we're interpreting as help is I prayed and ask

God to take away my fear or to take me out of the circumstance,

and he didn't do it. I prayed, and I asked God to heal

this person or to fix this situation, and he didn't do it. But

I just want you look at what it says, Look at what the word

says. Here. He says that he's a very present help in trouble.

If we're only going to interpret him being our help as getting us out of

trouble, we're missing his whole goal in the midst of the trouble. He

doesn't lead us around and away from any kinds of trouble. He uses the

trouble to help us to flex that little faith, little faith, so that

we could grow it into a greater faith. And he gives us what we

need to hold on for one minute, and then for one more minute,

and then maybe maybe for two minutes, a little bit at a time.

He hasn't not answered when he doesn't do a miracle. He's promised to be

ours, our ever present help in not just out of our trouble. I

do not wonder whether he has failed at being or help, because that's actually

not possible. I wonder whether I'm going to entrust myself to him when trouble

comes. Our heavenly Father is with us when the solid becomes unstable, when

our world turns upside down, but not being afraid when this happens as a

result of you see verse two, Is it therefore a result of verse one?

It's a result of realizing that the God who is with us is always

bigger than my trouble. It's always bigger than my trouble, So we need

not fear when the Salim becomes unstable. Secondly, let's look at verse four

to seven. We need not fear and your blanks there are when the enemy

is at our door. When the enemy is at our door, so you

hear, you see, there's this section he changes the metaphor with regards to

water. In verse three, he's using waters that are roaring and foaming,

and then in verse four he says, there's a river whose streams make glad

the city of God. But the city of God seems to be in some

way under siege. Look at verse six. The nations are raging still in

the midst of this context. There's trouble here, trouble for which the God,

the God who is their refuge and their help, needs to be their

refuge and their help, the one who needs to if you look at verse

five, help her. When the morning comes, help is still needed.

So it seems like there's some sort of way in which this city of God,

the people of God, are still under under attack, and even when

the enemy is at their door, God is saying here in verse three,

there's a river. There's a river I can still provide gladness in the midst

of trouble. God will help her when the morning dawns. What do we

experience in this fallen world? Fallen world? What is one of the many

things that we experience in the fallen world? The nation's rage. Those who

do not know God, those who are settled in opposition against God. They

rage, and that they will. The enemies of the people of God will

continue to bark and try to bite the entire length of their leash until the

Lord has the final word. He utters his voice verse six, the earth

melts, and in the meantime he has provided more than just the promise of

a future victory. He's not just said, not merely, not only said

in verse ten, I will be exalted among the nations. I will be

exalted in the earth. He has said, even here in the midst of

this what looks like siege, what looks like attack. There's a river whose

streams make glad the city the people of God. While the nation rage on

the other side of the walls, there is gladness available for the people of

God. Why how Because the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies.

Hosts is not a phrase that we use a whole lot, maybe sometimes at

Christmas, but the Lord of Armies, the Lord of Armies, the God

of Jacob is on our side. He's he's with us. Right. The

people of God have never truly been and never truly will be in danger.

That our most High God is not over. And he talks about he talks

in verse eight. You know, come behold the works of the Lord.

And we could talk about a number of things. Consider Sanakari of trying to

come against the people of God in Isaiah chapter thirty six, and one hundred

and eighty five thousand of them are completely done away with. Consider the King

of Syria when he comes to try to get one dude Elisha, and he

sends an entire great army, and that it is revealed to his servant that

as he looks around, there's chariots of fire all around. This is the

kinds of things that our Lord of Hosts does. Why because one dude plus

the Lord of Hosts is all you'll ever need. Right, one you plus

the Lord of Hosts. Let the enemy rage. Even now they tatter their

footing isn't assure as they think it is. And the helper is coming,

And the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Armies is with us. The

God of Jacob is our fortress. How easy it is to forget who is

with us when we're in the midst of our trouble. All we want to

see it's the trouble, especially sometimes in the dark his troubles. He says

that the help is coming in the morning. But in the dark, it's

hard for us to remember that. At about two seventeen in the morning,

when you're still thinking about that thing that you probably should have put the bed

four hours ago, you're like, ah, you know, if I fall

asleep now, then I get three hours asleep at the fall sleep now,

I get three and a half hours asleep. In some way like it's there's

that that sort of ice cold water that runs through your veins as you consider

that situation, and it keeps you awake for another fifteen minutes, as you

fear what could come, or fear how something's going to go, or as

you relive a moment of social awkwardness that you're like, man, I hope

I hope nobody else remembered that that was me being so weird. Right,

Those things they linger and they keep you up. And the lie is that

if I think about this long enough, I can fix it if I think

about this long enough and I can get it all the way to the end.

I can think this all the way through, and I can come up

with some sort of solution that doesn't make me feel weird, and I'm going

to feel better. Right. But that's not how That's just not how this

works. Right. Do you understand what it's like to have trouble? You

understand what it's like to have trouble, even in the darkness. But what

I want is for you and for me and for us to get better at

running to the one who is right there when the ice water is running in

your veins, right there in the darkness before the dawns, right there,

when the fear comes, He's still right there. What he calls us to

do is to let him run to him, to be our refuge and our

strength, the very present help in trouble. What are we afraid of?

What are we afraid of? A Are we really thinking that the things that

are coming our way or that the situations that are coming our way are more

powerful than the God who made the world and made us. We wouldn't say

that, but in the darkness it's hard to remember that. And I'm not

convinced that we've always done a very good job about bearing this together as people.

It was the last time that you, you like, heard somebody all

the way out when they were talking about something that they were legitimately afraid of,

legitimately afraid of. It's several people talk to me after first service like,

yeah, I can identify with that, like watching the blue go across

the screen. Okay, well, let's let's spend some time talking about that.

You know, when was the last time you really heard somebody out,

When was the last time that you really shared what those fears felt like?

I think sometimes we get so, you know, it's it's sort of the

equivalent of saying, Hey, how's it going, and you're asking the question

do you really want to hear? Church? We should be those who are

really wanting to hear. We should be those who are really asking that question

in a genuine way. How How are you? I want you to to

feel and understand experience the fullness of the joy of knowing this God, because

trouble tests trust, and there's all kinds of ways in which, like the

trouble that comes our way is going to help, is going to cause us

to wonder whether whether we're whether we're even his am, I even the lords.

Does a Christian struggle with anxiety like this kind of kind of Christian struggle

with this kind of fear and still be a real Christian? And if you

are here for maybe you know that you're not a Christian and you're still sort

of you're you're here. We're glad, We're so glad that you're here.

But at some level you understand the experience of fear, and I'm not I'm

sure that you don't yet know the helper who is your help and your refuge

in times of trouble like this, like this God. And so you're looking

and you're like, and you heard Carrie read a moment ago, the Lord

of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. And

there's a right way of asking, how is the God of Jacob our fortress?

Legitimate question, perfectly legitimate question. Well, the thing is, Jacob

was a part of a family line. Jacob's grandfather was a guy by the

name of Abraham. You may have learned back and father Abraham, right,

that dude, that was the guy that God said to him through you,

I would bless all of the families of the earth through you, they will

all be all be blessed. And so his grandson he actually God reiterated this

this particular promise to Jacob as well. He said, in you and in

your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Well. Jacob

had a number of sons and daughters. He had twelve of them. At

least one of the son's name was Judah. Judah was the one who had

later on King David, who later on had another young man by the name

of Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus of Nazareth was not only Judah's the lion

of the tribe of Judah. He was that, but he was also the

son of God. The text of the Bible tells us, as we read

already this morning, that Jesus was He was tested and tempted in every way

as we are, yet without sin. So when I say Jesus lived a

perfect life, I don't mean that Jesus never had any trouble, right Jesus

always The difference between Jesus lived a perfect life and Jesus never had any trouble

is a vast expanse like oh well, yeah, of course he had a

perfect life. No, no, he lived a perfect life in the midst

of a very difficult life. The text tells me that he was a man

of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He knew what it was like to get

stabbed in the back by his best friends. He knew what it was like

to suffer. He knew what it was like to he engaged with his friends,

and John his heart was very much moved, deeply moved when he saw

them suffer, to the point that he was even moved to anger about the

sin and the brokenness of this world. He was a man who wept when

his friends died. He understood what it was like to suffer and to have

difficulty. And yet in the midst of all of that, even on the

night before he was crucified, as he goes into the garden to pray and

ask his father if there's any other way for this to happen, Let this

cup pass from me, and he said, not my will, but yours

be done. He never sinned in fear. He never once sinned in fear.

Did he face situations where he had fear, possible situations where he could

have absolutely he was nailed to a cross. He was betrayed by every single

person, but he kept it all the way to the end, even as

on the cross, as he looks up at heaven and his father turns his

face away and he says, hey, why have you forsaken me? Even

then, and he did not sin? Why so that you, fearful Saint,

would have a savior that you can look to, who kept the Father's

will perfectly, who never feared in sin. Who you have an advocate before

the Father who understands the kinds of things that you're going through. He understands,

even at a visceral level, what it's like to get at some level,

like what that looks like. And he never sinned in fear. You

have one before the throne of God who experiences life like you do. And

he is the one, and his blood pleads for you, fearful Saint,

take courage. You may ask yourself as a Christian, as a Christian allowed

to fear, if they if they're not, then none of us make it.

In his blood stands for all of those whom he who call him savior.

As he was did up on the cross, what he accomplished was the

sanctification, of the perfection, of the salvation, even of fearful saints.

And better, it's to all who would call upon his name. So,

if you're here and you've never trusted in this Jesus, this refuge, this

strength, this ever present help in times of trouble, I'd love to talk

to you more about what it looks like to put your faith in the one

who was faithful on behalf of all who call upon his name. So he

died that his blood would cover sinful fear. We don't have to fear even

when the enemy is at our door. But lastly, this last section here

in verse eight through eleven, we don't have to fear. We need not

fear even when the world seems beyond hope, even when the world seems beyond

hope. We're gonna probably in this service here in just a minutes, we'll

get to walk outside of the cars or whatever else we're going. Next.

At some point we'll pick up our phone and there will be all kinds of

notifications on there. Right. Some of those notifications maybe social media things,

maybe text messages or whatever news things. We live in a time where like

the news, if you actually try to take it in can crush your soul

if you actually try to take it in and take all that burden on yourself,

it'll crush you. So much happening around the world, it's so messed

up and broken, and to foment further destruction, we then hit people on

television talking heads who yell at each other and get us to pick sides about

extra things that are just it's just a lot of extra that we just don't

need. But it's difficult for us to sort of steer clear because at some

level we want to be engaged. We want to know what's happening in the

world, and that's not necessarily in itself wrong. It can lead us to

prayer, it can lead us to faithfulness. It can lead us to opportunities

where we can go and we can help the refugees, and we can go

and et gay the people of the world, like like in some really really

helpful ways. But it's not always where we go. Sometimes when we look

around the world and we see these these desolations that are there, we see

the bows and the spears and the chariots and the wars. Again, we

focus only on the things and not on the God who is bigger than them

all. We only focus on those things and we can't consider we're not we're

not keeping in our frame that this God is still God. Look at look

at what he says. He's not saying these things are not a big deal.

He's just saying I have But he's brought desolations to the end of the

earth. He makes wars to cease, to the end of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, He burns the chariots with fire.

It doesn't matter how many tanks and bombs he has. At the end

of the day, it is the Lord who oversees them. And it's in

that context that we read verse ten. Be still then, and know that

I am God. This is not a precious moments moments he's talking about.

I mean, there there is apocalyptic destruction on the field, as he says,

there's there's shatters bows and broken broken bows and shattered spears, and chariot's

a flame. And for some reason, we'd like to put that on a

nice little coffee cup and with flowers beside it, and say be still and

know that I am God. No, the context here is one wherein you

would be moved to fear but you don't have to be, because even there

He is still your God. He's still God. Fear doesn't stimulate stillness.

Fear makes us continue to, Okay, I gotta do something. I've got

I've gotta fix this, I gotta I gotta make it better, I gotta

Fear stimulates all kinds of frenetic movement, but anything but stillness. And thus,

at some level, the hintidote God calls us to is to just be

still and consider not your context but your King. One hundred percent of the

time, we would accomplish much more by meditating on the godness of God than

we would by worrying. I can't even make a hair on my head white

or black or presence. I can't do it. Fear lies. Fear makes

me convinced that I can just think it all the way to the end.

And fear doesn't still me. God can, and he doesn't offer a way.

He offers himself. Look at that, Look at that. He says,

be still and know that I am God. He doesn't say, take

these six steps towards fault, towards stillness. He says, just be still.

I've got this. A wider knowledge of the world is going to require

a more robust trust in the sovereignty of God. And it's going to require

that I actually believe that this verse ten b and C, I will be

exalted among the nations, I will be exalted and all the earth that I

actually am going to have to believe, despite how messed up this world is,

God is moving it ever forward to the time when every need will bow

and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God

the Father. I have to believe that. So when we hear of rumors

and wars and wars and rockets and bombs and tanks and jets and bullets and

cyber attacks and all the rest, he makes those things to cease you still

and know that He is God. What's it going to look like for you

to engage with media in a faith full way. Probably want to work that

out a little bit this week. Maybe have a conversation over lunch as I

argue, I've tried to argue with you that God's power proves that you can

trust him. His love and his presence prove that you should. Because emanual

our strength cannot be moved. We need not be moved to fear. I

want to leave you just a couple of practical things. I know it's time.

I'm going to ask the band to come forward. As we do this,

a couple of practical things. What happens? What am I supposed to

do if I find myself in a situation of fear? And the first thing

is articulate your fear, write it down, speak it out. Some people

are verbal processors. I am, so write it down, speak it out,

talk to somebody if you need to, but articulate your fears. Your

fears will tell you a lot about what you believe. They tell you more

than you think that they do. Remembering that fear is very rarely rational.

If you've ever tried to convince a child there's actually no monster under the bed,

and you show them there's no monster under the bed, and then you

turn the light back off, there's instantly a monster under the bed. Right,

Fear does not You usually don't rationalize your way into fear, and so

it's going to be difficult for you to rationalize your way out of it.

But it doesn't mean that, like starting with naming, it is not going

to be really helpful. Honestly, assess those fears. Number two, Honestly

assess that. Assess your fears and light of God in the Gospel. Who

God is, who he is to you, who Christ is, what He's

done for you, and what he's doing right it Sess your fears in light

of God in the Gospel. A lot will be revealed there. Thirdly,

find a friend, find somebody to walk through this with you. There's a

whole host of friends here. That's us, we with the Body of Christ,

called to bear one another's burdens together. Listening and speaking right, Both

of those things are a part of this. Anxiety and fear are never less

than a spiritual issue. Sometimes there are other things complicating it, but they're

always a spiritual issue, and you sometimes need help to be able to see

what you can't see. And then lastly, to say, so I'll walk

through this one more time. Articulate your fear, Assess your fear and light

of God in the Gospel. Find a friend to walk through this with you.

And forth, just commit now to take the Lord at his word.

Commit now that you're going to let his truth overcome your untruth, the things

that you're believing that are not true, because it's just as true today as

it was the day that I started watching that little blue dot drive all around

this city. I'm not powerful enough to protect that little blue dot. But

the Most High is, and he is God. I am not. My

fear would better be replaced in him instead.